Happy Monday, folks!
This is a dual-purpose email.

The first objective is to bring your attention to a change in the meeting location for the OUS Board's Feb, April and June meetings - all of these meetings are now scheduled for the Chemeketa Community College Viticultural Center, 215 Doaks Ferry Rd NW Salem, OR 97304.  An interesting change in venue, don't you think?

The second objective is to report on the Jan 21 meeting of the Excellence in Delivery and Productivity Working Group at Chemeketa Community College which Maureen Sevigny and I attended.

After introductions of the Working Group Members and attendees, Chair Gretchen Schuette reported on the OUS Board Retreat of January 6 and 7.  She was impressed at the retreat's positive atmosphere, focus on long-range vision and legacy, and expressions of sharing responsibility by the institutions represented at the retreat.  

The organizations that participate in the Working Group reported on progress on their individual responsibilities set forth in the Working Group's matrix.  These reports all focused on the Oregon Transfer Module.  Provost Council Chair Lorraine Davis reported on the progress of OTM through the faculty senates of the OUS institutions - all universities except WOU and EOU have endorsed the module.  IFS President Turner reported that WOU will act on endorsing OTM at its Jan 25 meeting and EOU will consider OTM at its Feb 1 meeting.  CIA awaits specific wording and OUS Board action before moving on OTM.  JBAC states that most Community Colleges are waiting for action by the various boards, for a brochure explaining OTM; but that there is much enthusiasm over the conversations between OUS institutions and Community Colleges that have been engendered by OTM.  JBAC is moving to discussion of common outcomes and courses within individual disciplines, and has formed a subcommittee to
study both OTM and AAOT.  An OTM related result of the recent Transfer and Articulation meeting at Lane Community College was an emphatic statement of the need for guidance in the implementation of OTM.  

An open discussion developed on the needs to develop articulation agreements in disciplines with large numbers of students moving between institutions, that each institution needs to ensure that their advising guides are current and that the distinction between advising guides and articulation agreements be made clear to students and their advisors.

The Student Data Transfer Process will conduct a test of data transfer between the K-12 system and an OUS institution by the end of February.  Discussion followed of the details of the test and of privacy issues.

The Working Group was then treated to a presentation and demonstration of an online degree audit system by a team that included IFS Senator Robert Mercer from Portland State.  The system requires that each OUS institution annually, or as often as changes occur, provide information on the courses required for each of its degrees and the equivalent courses at every other institution.  Though this may seem a heavy initial investment, the degree audit system uses this information to provide the opportunity for any prospective student to determine the specific courses that remain to be completed at any participating institution in order to earn any degree.  The demonstration was received with much enthusiasm for its ease of use, power and potential to eliminate many of the perceived and actual problems in student movement between institutions and in providing accurate academic advising to an increasingly complex student population.  Robert Mercer has agreed to provide this demonstration at the February IFS meeting.

The working group meeting closed with brief reports of upcoming Legislative Hearings on Accelerated High School Learning Opportunities and, with respect to the working group's retention activities, that two OUS institutions and 5 community colleges have completed a matrix that summarizes their circumstances with respect to best practices on retention.